Thursday, September 4, 2014

I have been teaching a range of classes for Open Drawer in the last month and a half and it is the last class tomorrow. We will be making scraper paper and soft cut print blocks tomorrow, the first session we did nature dyeing/printing and the second session involved playing with indigo and rust. I had already made lots of books with the nature printing but since the indigo workshop I have made quite a lot of books with indigo and rust dyeing. The covers are scans of one particular sheet that I have printed onto bookcloth and each section contains one sheet that has been dipped into indigo or rust or both.

Last class we made paste papers and stamps and one of the participants asked what could you do with the paste papers so in the last week or two I have been playing with the papers and came up with a few ideas.

Monday, June 9, 2014

I am about to go to Europe for the IAPMA Congress that is happening next month in Fabriano, Italy at the Museo della carta e della filigrana. I have just finished putting together a catalogue for the members show and am putting the finishing touches together for both my travel plans and those for husband and daughter who will be travelling in Italy while I am at the congress. I will be visiting Paris for the first time and Netherlands and Italy for the second, it will be Mike's first trip to Europe.

From the week after I get back I will be teaching a series of workshops for Open Drawer on decorative papers.

A series of classes looking at ways of getting pattern and colour onto paper.

Time: 12.30 – 3.30pm

Friday July 25th: Natural Dye and Print

Make marks onto paper using a range of natural materials including tealeaves, gum leaves, ferns, berries and a range of metals. Some great effects can be achieved.

Bring along a range of leaves from your garden

Material Fee $6 includes: paper and other materials needed – payable to Gail on the day

Friday August 8th: Indigo and Rust

Learn how to set up an indigo vat for dyeing paper (and fabric) to a range of beautiful blues. Also learn about rusting paper using readily obtained chemicals then combine the two processes to achieve some wonderful effects.

Material Fee of $10 includes: paper and chemicals – payable to Gail on the day

Friday August 22nd: Paste Papers

Get back to kinder with some finger painting. Use a range of tools to create beautiful patterns on paper using paste and colour.

Material Fee $10 includes: all materials needed for workshop

Friday September 5th: Scraper Paper

Get some wonderful effects on paper using acrylic paint and a scraper of some sort, a great use for old plastic gift cards.

Bring along a spray bottle and at least three tubes of acrylic paint (Jo Sonya works well, anything that is not too thin) including one metallic colour. Please also bring disposable gloves and wear an apron.

Friday, May 16, 2014

I started this post nearly a week ago but somehow none of it saved so here goes again.
I am teaching a workshop for Papermakers of Victoria this coming Sunday and we are doing acetate etching (although it is perhaps more correctly acetate engraving). I have done a bit with sheets of thickish acetate scratching the surface with an awl and that is what we will be concentrating on however I have also been playing around using an engraver on perspex and was happy with the results so we will do some of that too.
Here are a few that I did with the acetate:-

And these ones I did with the perspex and the engraver.

Some time ago I blogged about a workshop I did with Velma Bolyard in February this year, well it took getting together with Chris to bind our PoV snake books (from longer ago, last December!) to finally bind the second book of pages that were in the blue tones. Some I dipped in indigo but I also slipped in a few cyanotypes and other bits and pieces.

This book will be going to Fabriano to the IAPMA congress for the silent auction and I have started work on my keepsakes, I have enough of the plant fibre paper that is a mix of papyrus and New Zealand flax both of which got well washed and bleached somewhat by the rain. I have made my two plates from easy cut rubbery material and done a trial print, the next challenge is to see if they will overprint without too much slippage.

The snake book bound! At last.

My page on right, the back of Chris's on the left

More of my page, all the paper is yukka, the top sheet has been momigamied with arrowroot paste and the bottom sheet has daphne bast fibre added and has a lino print.

Mind you while I am mucking around with this blog I should be either printing my keepsakes, binding some eco books or preparing the catalogue for the Congress members show. I had better get back to at least one of these!!!

Friday, May 2, 2014

I notice it is almost two months since I last blogged. I have been thinking lately that I have been spending too much time working for and promoting other peoples practices and not enough on my own. I have been spending a lot of time helping with the organisation of the next IAPMA Congress that is happening in Fabriano Italy from 1-6 July. And yes, I will be attending and having some holiday time in Paris, Amsterdam and Rome before the congress.

Connections cyanotype on handmade cotton paper

Nexus - detail cyanotype on hanji

These two pieces will be exhibited as part of the member show in Fabriano, they are on their way to Italy now, I have my fingers and toes crossed that they'll arrive safely. Back in 2000 the work I sent for the members show failed to arrive. Three of the boxes arrived back in Melbourne in January 2001 and one was delivered to the Tuscany address a couple of months later.

This dress is currently in Jeonju Korea but due to the ferry disaster there won't be shown until some later date. All public events have been cancelled or postponed.

I have made a few journals lately including a new series of Melbourne icons. It all started when I made my daughter who is currently living in Netherlands a cardboard Christmas Tree and Vegemite jar ornament. Since I had the photo of the Vegemite jar I put it on the cover of a couple of books but they were deemed to breach copyright so I started again with some Vegemite on toast, lamingtons and twisties. They in turn led to using photographs of some Melbourne landmarks, The Skipping girl and Luna Park.

Monday, March 3, 2014

I recently did a three day workshop with Velma Bolyard at Beautiful Silks in Fitzroy and have finally put together a book of some of the papers we decorated during the class ( I plan to make a second book but that is very much just a plan) The first few pictures are of this second book that will consist of indigo dyed papers and some plant dyed papers in the blue range (I will probably also slip in some cyanotypes and blue jeans paper)

Indigo, sumi ink and rust on hanji

Indigo on hanji and fabric

Indigo on Fijian tapa and in background, case paper from Iowa

Found on the way to class, an owl's feather and palm 'stuff'

Cyanotype on light fabric sewn to paper and dyed with eucalyptus, rust and other plant material

Papers dyed with rust, eucalyptus, blueberries and other plant material

The sections ready for sewing

The cover ready Iowa case paper and tapa dyed with eucalyptus, rust and other plant material.

Several of the spreads from the book

A fold out map sewn into the book

More spreads

My little piece of shifu. Thread made from daphne paper made japanese style.

First spread with the shifu hiding in the pocket.

The book completed, a stationers binding, sections sewn over tapes and attached to the cover with tackets, leather thong to hold all together.